Lasso The Moon

Paint Like Jasper Johns - Art Class at Home

 

As we move around the world in geography, I thought it would be fun to learn about some artists in each of the countries that we visit.  But what fun is an art class with only two people in it? Not as much fun as inviting some friends to come and join in.  Our first American artist is Jasper Johns.  This was an easy pick, because he painted iconic symbols of America, like the map, and the United States flag.

For our project, we chose to emulate his "Colored Alphabet" painting.

photo source

For our version, we used the following supplies:

Cold Press 140-Pound Watercolor Paper, 11 by 15-Inch

Crayons

Watercolors

assorted paint brushes (the one that comes with the paints is almost always terrible.  Throw it away!)

pencil and ruler

2-inch letter stencils (optional, but great for working on fine motor skills)

 

To start, lightly draw a grid on the paper with the pencil, 5 boxes across, and 5 boxes down.  These will be the spaces for each letter.  You might wonder how we fit 26 letters into 25 spaces.  We sneaked the "I" between two of the boxes.  See the original below.

While you are making the grid, you can give your child a scrap of watercolor paper and some crayons to experiment with.  Then show them how the wax resists the watercolor when painted over the crayon lines.

Now you are ready to make the letters.  Using the stencils or free-handing, outline all 26 letters in pencil.  Then, use the crayons to color the letters in.  You can make them all the same color, or make patterns within each letter.  The harder you press on the crayons, the more wax that is transferred to the paper, and the better it will resist the watercolor.

After all the letters are colored, it's time to paint!  To make the borders of the boxes more defined, we painted a line on the border, and then filled in the box.  This is not necessary, though.  It's fun to experiment and try different techniques. 

Some of our artists used lots of different paint colors in each box, while others used just one.  See how the paint changes when you add more water. 

A good practice when changing colors is 1) swish in the water, 2) tap on the edge of the cup to let some water drip off, and 3) blot the water on a paper towel.  Personally though, I love to mix colors, and I don't mind when they blend a little bit with each other.   

And you're done!  Don't forget to take a picture! 

If you do this project with your kids at home, or with your class at school, let us know! I'd love to see how they interpreted the lesson!  You can even share a link to your project in the comments, or on the facebook page.

Here are some other resources on Jasper Johns:

American Masters

Jasper Johns Documentary on YouTube  Great info.  A little boring.  Good for gathering details to share with the class.

Don't forget to check the library so they can see some of the work up close and study it.  I used binder clips to keep curious eyes from seeing artwork they aren't ready for.

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If you are still in the mood for more watercolor fun, check out some of the projects we did for Emma's watercolor birthday party.

And the school poster Emma made that won first place!

 

Reflections Contest 2013

It's amazing what you can crank out in a single evening with talented kids and some art supplies. We forgot about the annual "reflections" contest until the night before. The theme was "Believe, Dream, Inspire". Who comes up with these themes?? This one is Ethan's.

He is considering the paths open to him in his future. He came up with the career ideas himself. Love it! (Those clouds were added without consulting his controlling mama first. He drew those on while I was dealing with a potty-training situation in the next room. Good for him!)

This one is Emma's.

She is dreaming about all the possibilities ahead of her. I don't know if you can see it, but there are dreamy things drawn in the watercolor cloud. I love the self portrait part the most!

You can see that we are still on a watercolor kick from Emma's 9th birthday party.  We love to blend those colors!

A Bag of Rainbows

My niece, Ellie is having a birthday party this weekend, and the theme is rainbows.  I don't know when I've been more excited to go to a kids' party.  My sister has a great eye for detail and color, so when she told me she was throwing a rainbow party, I couldn't wait to see what she would come up with, and still can't! 

To make the wait a little easier, and to get the kids (almost) as hopped up about it as I am, we got to work on her birthday gift.  Don't worry, she's turning 5 and doesn't read this blog, so there won't be any ruined surprises.

This project could not be easier.  Before you start, gather some supplies. 

You'll need:

1. craft paint in every color of the rainbow. We added an extra--pink--so we have 8 colors total.  Although I didn't know it before I started, having an even number of colors actually makes the painting part easier.  But that's up to you.

2. freezer paper, a pencil, an iron, and scissors

3. painters tape (we used 1" wide) and sponge brushes

4. a plain canvas bag

(Since I had most of these supplies already, the whole thing was right under $5--perfect for a kids' gift!)

I started by sketching out my elephant shape on a piece of freezer paper.  You will be ironing down the plastic side, so draw on the paper side.  Please feel free to use my drawing for your own bag--just right click on the photo, save, and print it out.  Or, come up with your own shape.  I used an elephant, because it's the same basic shape that I used on a freezer paper onesie for her back before she was born.

Cut out the outline, the eye, and the ear.  Then, iron the elephant down where you want it.  The freezer paper will block the paint from touching the canvas.

Tape off the stripes, right over the elephant, using your 1-inch painter's tape.  Pull off every other strip of tape to make stripes.  Decide which colors you want where, and label the tape to help you.  It's easy to get confused with so many different colors.  Also, if the tape pulls off part of the freezer paper, be sure to iron it back down before painting.

Paint your first set of stripes.  If the elephant's eye crosses a red stripe like mine did, you might want to pick a different color for that little dot.  Carefully pull off the tape while the paint is still wet, and set it aside.  You can reuse it for the next set of stripes.

When the first paint is completely dry, carefully tape on top of the painted stripes.  Be sure you know which colors are under there, and label them in whatever code will help you keep them straight.   Paint the next set of stripes!

Carefully pull off all the tape and the freezer paper stencil.

Let the bag dry completely and you are done!

I can't wait to give this to Ellie on Saturday.  I think it will be perfect as a library tote or small school bag.

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Know someone who might love this little project? Don't keep it to yourself; share it!  Find all the "share" buttons at the end of this post, and spread the word!

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Want to see why I'm so psyched about this party?  Follow this link to my sister's party pinboard.  I fully expect to see many of these ideas and more on Saturday.  (And go ahead and follow her pinterest account while you're there.  She pins great stuff!)

 

Boys Room :: How to Turn Your Bumpy Wall into a Smooth Chalkboard

Last time you saw the fourth wall of the boys room it looked like this:

Ack.  So messy and cluttery.

I've been planning a chalkboard wall in this room for several months.  I was inspired by pictures like this one and this one.  There was a moment of hesitation when I worried that the dark color would make our small room feel even smaller, but then I realized that a chalkboard would keep this high-traffic piece of wall between the door and the closet free from any furniture, I hoped that in the end it would actually give the room better flow, and even make it seem bigger.  Was I right?

The first thing I had to figure whether the wall was smooth enough for chalkboard drawings.  It would be a bummer to go through all the work of transforming the wall, only to realize it was too bumpy for writing.   So I directly on the wall with a piece of chalk to test it. 

The verdict?  Yes.   Too bumpy.

I did a little research and found out I had three options for smoothing out my wall.

1. Sand the whole wall until the texture was gone, then prime and paint.

2. Cover the wall with hard board, a thin, smooth sheet of building material.  Then spackle, prime, and paint.

3. Coat the entire wall with a thin coat of plaster to fill in the low spots of the texture, then sand, prime, and paint.

If the room had been empty, I would have chosen the sanding option.  It would cost the least, and with an electric sander, it probably wouldn't take all that long.  But the idea of having to cover everything with plastic, and then clean up all the sanding dust was just too much.  And since the third option also called for a bit of sanding (although not nearly as much) I opted for the cleanest route--#2: the hard board.

I measured the walls, and very carefully plotted out how much of the stuff I was going to need.  Hard board comes in 4'x8' pieces, in either 3/16 inch thickness or 1/8 inch.  I went for the thinner version. Thankfully the tall sections of the wall were exactly perfect for using 2 sheets, with one sheet divided vertically for either side of the door.  I was able to avoid buying a third big piece for the section above the door, because Home Depot also sells hard board in 2'x4' sheets.  All three pieces cost about $24.  So as far as chalkboard go, this was still a very affordable option.  I had the boards cut at the store.  *note* When getting boards cut at Home Depot or Lowes, take the time to double check all the measurements and marks before the guy puts it through the giant saw.  It might seem rude to check his work, but it's worth it to avoid mistakes.  It also helps to not have four children with you, but sometimes that is just unavoidable...

While I was at Home Depot I picked up a can of chalkboard paint, and some smooth paint rollers.

When I got out to my van, I opened up the back to load everything up.  I had laid down or removed enough of the seats that the area was long enough to fit the 8-ft boards.  What I hadn't realized, is that my van's interior space is not tall enough to fit the boards' 4-ft width.  After all the measuring, cutting, and child-wrangling that had gone into the last hour, I just stood there staring into my car, not sure what to do next. 

The sun was beating down on me with all the force of its triple-digit oppression.  I was debating whether to unpack all the kids and head back inside, to balance the boards on top of our heads for the short drive home, or to ditch it all in the parking lot and speed away laughing like a maniac.   I had just decided on the latter, when I heard someone offer to help. 

I turned to see a man wearing a sombrero and an orange apron with the name Gonzo on it.  At first I didn't answer, because I knew that a sombrero-wearing Gonzo was just the kind of mirage I would dream up, and that the heat was playing tricks on my weary mind.  But when he offered again, I considered the possibility that he might be real, and actually help me out of my self-induced predicament.  I snapped a picture just to be sure.

Gonzo suggested that we tie the boards to the luggage rack.  Ah, the luggage rack!  Another five minutes, and lots of twine later, we were on our way.  And although I imagined myself hitting the breaks and sending those boards flying into another car, they were actually quite secure, and stayed put for the mile-drive home.  Thanks, Gonzo!

Once all the kids and the boards were inside, I set to work attaching them to the wall. I used nails to secure the boards to the studs.  Then I went back over the nail holes and the seam with some spackle.  I let it dry over night, and then went over it with a piece of sandpaper.  Yes, I had to sand after all, but the mess was minimal.

The next step was priming.  I gave the boards one coat of kilz that we had already so that the chalkboard paint would sit on top of them, instead of soaking in and using more paint than was necessary.  After that, it took two coats of chalkboard paint.  I've never used chalkboard paint before this, and had no idea what it was like.  But rolling on that deep-black inky paint over my new smooth walls was deeply satisfying. 

After the second coat was dry, we marked the time, and waited three days for it to cure.  That was tough.  The kids were anxious to write on their new surface, but I made them wait the entire 72 hours.  It seemed like weeks!

At the end, we grabbed some white sidewalk chalk and seasoned the wall by rubbing it down with the side of the chalk. 

It was very fast work--only took about 10 minutes to season the whole thing.

Then we wiped it down and had some fun!

The chalkboard has been up now for a few weeks, and I haven't regretted it for a second.  The kids have enjoyed it, and it really did open up the room. 

Keeping furniture off of this wall looks so much cleaner, and provides lots more play space on the floor. 

For the most part, I let them draw on it as much as they want (white chalk only to avoid carpet stains) and I only wipe it down to make more space or write giant messages and blog post titles.

I let the kids wash away their drawings with a water-dampened cloth, which works pretty well.  But in all my research for this project, I found that the secret to a glossy, clean chalkboard is a cloth soaked in Coca Cola. 

Sounds crazy, I know, but it works. The kids know I have a secret potion for cleaning the chalkboard, but I decided to keep the details to myself.  I imagined spilled coke, and lines of ants swarming their bedroom.  Aint nobody got time for that.

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Are you working on any projects in your kids rooms this week?  What have you discovered about space-saving and smart design?  Have you ever worked with chalkboard paint? I admit that I'm hooked, and am currently looking for more surfaces to cover with it.  I'll be around in the comment section to answer any questions.  Have a good one!

Anna

Chalkboard paint and other for kids' room decor we LOVE:

(may contain affiliate links)

 

          

        

 

 

Election Day

I surprised Emma by getting her out of school yesterday to go vote with me.  I thought I'd have to talk the office ladies into letting me have her, but they seemed really excited and impressed that I would let her see how the process works.

While I've heard stories of crazy-long lines, and multi-hour waits, there were only a few voters at our location in the middle of the day, so we were in and out in a matter of minutes.  I wanted to get a picture of Emma turning in my ballot, but they tend to frown upon things like cameras at polling stations.

Before going back to school, we took a quick detour to Starbucks, since they were giving away these cool bracelets.  So patriotic.

I might have shared a sip or two of my coffee...

The caffeine and sugar only affected her a little bit.  I'm sure her teachers could handle it.

I'll have to brainstorm to come up with some other school-office-approved-midday outings.  I miss them so much when they are there all day!

After school, when Ethan found out I'd taken Emma on a field trip, he felt scandalized.  I cheered him up with a project I had set up for them both.

I found a map online that was complete with electoral college points.  During the election coverage, I gave Emma a red pencil, Ethan a blue, and set them to work keeping track of the votes as they became official. 

This way they felt completely engrossed in the outcome of the election.  They weren't able to stay awake for the end, but when they woke up this  morning, they were both curious to hear what the result was.

I don't believe in involving children in the grown-up politics and emotions of the presidential election, so I didn't make any big deal about which side I was going for, but it was fun for them to feel connected to it, and get an art project in at the same time.

Next time I might have them add up the electoral votes while they color.

Craft Wednesday - Sun and Moon

Day Four!

Gen 1:16-19  "God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day."

This was my favorite day yet in our neighborhood art class.  We started with the moon, because it is the messiest, and it takes the longest to dry. 

I gathered shaving cream (the old fashioned kind), elmer's glue, and black poster board.  Whatever background paper you use, make sure it's sturdy.

I found the recipe for homemade puff paint on this blog post. (What a great blog!) 1/2 cup glue to 1 1/2 cups shaving cream.  I made three batches for my big group, and we used almost all of it.

Really, this is one of the coolest art supplies I've ever used.  It's a bit sticky when it's wet, but after it dries, it is tall and puffy and soft.  I cannot wait to explore other uses for it.

I handed each kid a 1/2 piece of black poster board and had them draw a large circle with a pencil.  Then they filled in the circle with the puffy paint, using their hands or a sponge brush.  After it was all filled in, they made craters with various objects.  By far the best craters were made with the tp rolls. Stamp down, and shift slightly to make a perfect crater.

Place your moon paintings someplace out of the way, because they take about 12-24 hours to fully dry.  But they are worth it!!

For the next project, we took inspiration from one of the greats - Kandinsky.  On a sheet of sturdy drawing paper, the children made their sun paintings using different colors of oil pastels.

Oil pastels are very easy to find--even Walmart sells a pack for about $5.  They are creamy and make very rich colors on the page. 

Start at the center with a dot, and then draw different color concentric circles all the way to the edge of the paper, if you can!

Don't you love how they turned out!  This is very good practice at fine motor skills.  Even the littlest artists (ours were 3 yrs old) had fun with this one, picking which color would come next.  None of them stuck to oranges and yellows.  I love that!

This picture is so funny to me!  They are all so proud of their sunshine paintings!

Find the rest of our Craft Wednesday Creation series here:

Color Wheel

Light

Air and Water

Land, Rocks, Plants

Have fun making your own!

 

 

 

Craft Wednesday - Land, Rocks, Plants

 ^{Gen 1: 9} Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

We are starting with the reveal shot on this one.  Instead of warming up with play-doh or chalk today, I had them run around the yard looking for interesting leaves for leaf rubbings.

Peel some crayons (fun!) and place the leaves veiny-side-up under a piece of thin paper.  We used tracing paper.  Experiment with patterns, shapes, and overlapping colors.

Then it's off to the next project:  Hot Rocks!

I first learned about hot rocks years ago on this blog.  It's a favorite.

Collect or buy some smooth, clean stones--about the size of your palm.  We got a package of rocks at Walmart, in the flower-arranging craft aisle, for about 5 bucks.

Place the rocks on a foil-lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees.  Warn the kids 20-25 times not to touch the rocks with their hands.  Set the rocks in front of them, and protect your work surface from the heat with some padding.  (We made a bed of paper towels, covered with a piece of foil.)

Grab some crayons and start drawing on the rock.  The wax melts to the hot rock and shows up in brilliant, beautiful streams of color.

Try to cover the whole top of the rock in color.

Wait until they cool off before picking them up.

And then take a picture!

Craft Wednesday - Air and Water

 Gen 1 ⁶ Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. ⁸ God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

It kind of looks like they're under water, doesn't it!  The day we did this art class, the air was so thick and humid that I only got a couple pictures before the lens was all fogged up again. Gross.  But appropriate, in a way, to the lesson.

Before we got to the messy part of the day, I gave each child a piece of white drawing paper, and had them draw an under-water scene.  They got very creative with this.

We had a huge range of ages on this day--from 3 to 10 years old.  I gave the little guys some pointers on how to draw a simple fish.  The older ones just ran with it.

When they were done drawing, I mixed some bubble solution with a little dish soap and a squirt of paint, and we covered the ocean scenes with bubble prints.  A great way to depict Air and Water through and art project.

Note: I do not have any pictures of this process. It is very hands-on, very slippery, and one of my children had a flat-out melt-down in the middle of it.  (It's not the one you're thinking, either...)

But there is a VERY good tutorial on the Paper Crafts blog!

One thing we did learn is to add lots of paint so the bubbles really show up well.

We also learned that little ones need to practice blowing into the bubble mixture a few times so they know not to suck it up.  Ew.

Ethan's (below) Can you find the crab chasing the jelly fish?  LOVE!

The kids loved this project! Most of them didn't even care that they had covered their pictures in painty bubbles.  They just wanted to keep making them. (The bubbles stick together and form a tall tower of colorful foam.  So much fun.)

Oh my gosh.  I just noticed that Ethan's shorts are unbuttoned in every photo. He must have been in the middle of something when he heard the call for group photos...

 

 

And here is another source of wonderful bubble crafts, which would be very nice to try on a day that is not so humid as ours was.  We could not get any bubbles to fly, the air was so heavy!  We did make bubble wands with pipe cleaners, and even though the bubbles wouldn't work, they had tons of fun trying anyway.

 

Craft Wednesday - Light

After our first class on the color wheel, I finally decided on the theme of our art class series.   As we proceed through the classes, our lessons and projects will loosely follow the order in which God created the universe.

So, for our second class, we learned a couple things about light.

During our play-doh warm up time, we remembered the color wheel from last time.  And because light contains all the colors, we made our own color wheels out of play-doh.

Start with two balls of play-doh in each primary color:

Break one of the balls in half and place each one on the sides of the larger ball of the same color.

Now comes the fun part.  Talk about which colors mix to make new colors.  And with each pair of small play-doh balls, start to mix them together to see what results.

Keep mixing until a uniform color is formed.

Like magic!  Take a minute or two and play around with the new colors.  Make something different out of all of the colors of the wheel.

The kids in art class LOVED this part of the lesson.

How fun to mix play-doh colors and not get in trouble for it!

After the warm up time was over, we set out to make kaleidoscopes with a project I found on the bkids blog. (That's a great source for artsy ideas!)

We used circles cut from self-laminating sheets. They are very stiff on one side and sticky on the other.

Our artists cut shapes from three different colors of tissue paper.  Magenta, Blue, and Yellow.  They stuck some of each color to their flimsy, sticky circle, and then had a grown-up cover the shapes with the "lid" piece of the laminating sheet.  Make sure to leave plenty of blank space so the circles will stick together. 

Depending on time and attention-span, your artist can make two or three circles to form the kaleidoscope.  We made two each in our class. Make sure each circle has all three colors represented.

Cut a small hole in the center of each circle.  We folded them slightly and cut with scissors.  (Be careful!)  Place a brad in the center, connecting your layers together.

As you hold up your kaleidoscope to the light, turn the circles to form new shapes and colors.  As they overlap, you'll notice the came colors you formed while mixing play-doh!

A great way to study light through art.

(More details can be found on the bkids blog.)

Next week is Air and Water!

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Dolly update:

These 3 cuties just arrived from an anonymous crafter in Arkansas:

And 10 more came in from Denton:

That brings our total to:

115!

 

 

 linked to: THD

Craft Wednesday - Color Wheel

I started an art class for the neighborhood kids and some other friends on Wednesday mornings.

Every class I've ever taught starts by making a color wheel.  This one is made using magazine pages, so it's very kid-friendly.

Preparation:

Take a large piece of white craft paper, and trace a circle with a dinner plate.  Divide the circle into 6 equal sized wedges, either by eye-balling or folding.  Trace all the lines with a black marker.  Using colored markers, draw a line or squiggle in each wedge that shows which color to use: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet. 

Flip through magazines and junk mail to find pictures that are mostly one color.  Recycling and giving you permission to get rid of some of those magazines that are cluttering your side table!

Separate the colored paper pieces into piles (or baggies if you are outside!) and let your child fill each wedge with the right color.  Tell her to try and cover every bit of white paper, and she might just take all day to finish it.

Depending on your little one's age, he might need some help.  One of our friends kept putting the glue on the wrong side, and then couldn't figure out why it didn't look right in the end.  No big deal, though.  Just cover them with more pieces!

I love doing projects with lots of kids, because each one works differently.  It's fun to see all the various personalities and how they approach their own work.  Try not to hurry them if time allows, and try not to give too much instruction.  They have ways of figuring things out for themselves that might surprise you.

Don't forget to take a picture of the finished product!

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If you are following the baby doll drive for Haiti, we just got these two darlings, made by Kathryn S.

I kinda want to keep them.  I love the collars!

That brings our current total to 34!

Keep sewing and sending them in!  Details here.

 

 

linked to THD